Purchasing a property is not merely just a case of buying bricks and mortar – it’s also a statement that you are ready to make a mature financial commitment towards your future and make a home for yourself or your family.
But how can you achieve this? Whether you are buying your first property or moving home, it can be both confusing and a veritable minefield, so it’s essential that you go into the process with as much information as possible.
It may be that your current mortgage rate is coming to an end and you are looking to remortgage onto a better deal or release extra funds.
[*As a mortgage is secured against your home or property, it may be repossessed if you do not keep up the mortgage repayments.]
To help you we have outlined some of the common terminology used below.
An interest only mortgage allows you to pay just the interest charged each month for the term of the loan. You don’t have to repay the amount you’ve borrowed until the end of the term.
With a repayment mortgage you’ll make monthly repayments for an agreed period of time until you’ve paid back both the capital and the interest.
This means that your mortgage balance will get smaller every month and, as long as you keep up the repayments, your mortgage will be repaid at the end of the term (usually 25 years).
A flexible mortgage is a type of mortgage that could allow you to make overpayments, underpayments and perhaps take payment holidays to suit your financial situation.
If you want a mortgage that works for you, and fits around your unique situation, a flexible mortgage may be a suitable option.
Many people take a flexible mortgage because they allow you to make additional payments to your mortgage and pay less in interest overall.
A buy-to-let mortgage is a loan secured against a buy-to-let property which is a type of property investment, in which the investor becomes a landlord and rents out the property for profit.
*The financial conduct authority does not regulate commercial buy to let mortgages.
Offset mortgages are a type of product that let you link your mortgage to your savings.
The savings balance is used to reduce the amount of interest charged on your mortgage balance minus your savings balance. Your savings don’t actually repay any of your mortgage, they just sit alongside it and save you interest.
With a fixed-rate mortgage, your interest rate is guaranteed to stay the same for a set number of years. This can offer you peace of mind, as you’ll know exactly how much you’ll need to repay during this period.
Fixed rates differ from variable-rate mortgages where your monthly repayments can go up or down because of changes in the interest rate.
With a standard variable rate mortgage, the amount of interest you pay each month could change.
The standard variable rate (SVR) is set by your lender, which can raise or lower it by any amount and at any time.
A discounted variable rate is a discount off the lender’s standard variable rate (SVR) and only applies for a certain length of time, typically two or three years.
Capped rate mortgages are actually a type of variable rate mortgage, but with an important difference: they have an interest rate ceiling, or cap, beyond which your payments can’t rise.
A capped rate is normally only for an introductory period, which can typically be anything from two to three years.